By NICOLE WINFIELD (Associated Press)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis praised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s “acute and gentle thought” as he presided over a packed Wednesday basic viewers within the Vatican, whereas hundreds of individuals paid tribute to the previous pope on the ultimate day of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Francis was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd within the Paul VI auditorium and shouts of “Viva il papa!” or “Long live the pope” as he arrived for his weekly catechism appointment with the devoted.
This week’s viewers was carried out whereas tens of hundreds of individuals continued to flock to the Vatican to pay their respects to Benedict earlier than the official viewing of his physique ends Wednesday night. From Monday via noon Wednesday, practically 160,000 individuals had handed via the basilica, the Vatican mentioned.
“It is my duty to come,” mentioned Małgorzata Nowska, a Polish resident of Rome as she paid tribute Wednesday. She mentioned she needed to offer Benedict “a last hug, a last prayer.”
Francis is because of preside over the late German pope’s funeral on Thursday, an occasion that’s drawing heads of state and royalty regardless of Benedict’s requests for simplicity and Vatican efforts to maintain the primary Vatican funeral for an emeritus pope in trendy instances low-key. Only Italy and Germany have been invited to ship official delegations, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Italian President Sergio Mattarella confirmed their participation.
But different heads of state and authorities determined to take the Vatican up on its provide and are available of their “private capacity.” As of a late rely Wednesday, seven heads of state, 4 prime ministers and two delegations of royal representatives have been attending as personal residents, together with the president of Togo, the prime minister of Gabon and royals from Belgium and Spain.
And in an additional signal of officialdom, the Italian authorities introduced it was reducing all Italian and European Union flags to half-staff on public buildings throughout the nation Thursday.
Francis drew applause when he opened his remarks by giving a shout-out to all those that have been outdoors paying tribute to Benedict, whom he referred to as a “great master of catechesis.”
“His acute and gentle thought was not self-referential, but ecclesial, because he always wanted to accompany us in the encounter with Jesus,” Francis mentioned.
Later Wednesday, Vatican officers have been to position Benedict’s physique in a cypress coffin — the primary of three coffins —together with a short, written abstract of his historic papacy, the cash minted throughout his preach and his pallium stoles.
After the funeral within the piazza, the stays might be carried again into the basilica, the place the coffin will positioned inside a zinc one, after which lastly into one other comprised of oak.
In preserving with Benedict’s needs, his stays might be positioned within the crypt as soon as occupied by the tomb of St. John Paul II within the grottos beneath the basilica. John Paul’s tomb was moved upstairs into the primary basilica forward of his 2011 beatification.
Benedict, who was elected pope in 2005 following John Paul’s demise, turned the primary pope in six centuries years to resign when he introduced in 2013 he now not had the energy to steer the Catholic Church. After Francis was elected pope, Benedict spent his practically decade-long retirement in a transformed monastery within the Vatican Gardens.
“We can’t forget the example that he gave in his resignation, that he more or less said, ‘Look, I’m not in this for the prestige, the power of the office, I’m in it for service, as Jesus taught,’” recalled Cardinal Timothy Dolan, whom Benedict named archbishop of New York in 2009 and cardinal in 2012.
Thursday’s ceremony takes into consideration the weird state of affairs wherein a reigning pope will preside over a funeral for a retired one, making necessary adjustments to a funeral ritual for popes that’s extremely codified.
Two key prayers, from the diocese of Rome and the Eastern ceremony church buildings, that have been recited throughout John Paul’s funeral, for instance, might be omitted as a result of Benedict wasn’t pope when he died and since each branches of the Catholic Church nonetheless have a reigning pope as their chief: Francis.
While the funeral might be novel, it does have some precedent: In 1802, Pope Pius VII presided over the funeral in St. Peter’s of his predecessor, Pius VI, who had died in exile in France in 1799 as a prisoner of Napoleon, the Vatican famous Wednesday.
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More on the demise of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: https://apnews.com/hub/pope-benedict-xvi
Source: www.bostonherald.com”